


winter warning: watch the fucking ice

by unicyclehippo



Series: Critical Shorts [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Empire Kids, Team Human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22207276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unicyclehippo/pseuds/unicyclehippo
Summary: prompt: apricity - the warmth of the sun in the winteror, one day caleb or beau - one of them - will admit that they consider the other their sibling. but until then, Nonsense.
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett & Caleb Widogast
Series: Critical Shorts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824253
Comments: 4
Kudos: 142





	winter warning: watch the fucking ice

The ground is slick with ice and Caleb looks like a fuckin’ newborn colt, long legs and knobbled knees all going every which way with no apparent regard for gravity, Caleb’s safety, or kinetic physics. He’s walking straight forward one moment so Beau would’ve thought he’d pitch forward or his feet would go out from under him but instead he flails like spider-Frumpkin trying to balance on a ball-bearing—that is to say, impressive in a way, and in another way, deeply disturbing. Legs—human legs—were not meant to bend like that nor move so quickly.

The impromptu ballet gives way to the more expected slip, slide, and _thud_ as Caleb hits the stone.

He groans. He doesn’t move.

‘Hey, Caleb. Hey, Caleb. Caleb. Caleb, hey. Ca—‘

‘Ja.’

‘You okay, dude?’

He groans again. ‘I think I have broken my body.’

‘Like, a leg?’

‘Nein.’

‘Ni—you’ve only got two, man. Concussion, maybe?’ She suggests, turning to the healer standing beside her on the path.

Caduceus hums his agreement.

‘Nein— _no_ ,’ Caleb grumbles, even though Beau is pretty sure that by this point in their friendship he knows she’s teasing him. ‘My whole body. It hurts.’

‘That fuckin’ sucks, dude. Alright, hold your horses, I’ll come help you—‘

‘I have no horses—wait, Beauregard, the ice!’

Long story short, Beau joins him. Caleb plasters a pale hand over his mouth to stopper the laugh, but his eyes glitter with mirth when he glances across at her, now in the same predicament. Groaning. In pain. Flat on her back beyond the ice.

‘That’s—oh fuck,’

‘Easy to lose ones footing.’

‘Slippery.’

‘Ja.’

Beau whimpers. She reaches for the elbow she had banged hard on the stone, feeling very tender and sorry for herself. A full body shiver runs through her; she tries to suppress it and only partially succeeds. Her vestments do little to protect against the cold and usually her pride and whatever activities they’ve found themselves in will keep her nice and toasty but the stone is fucking _freezing_ against her back. She sits upright.

‘Are you alright?’ Caleb asks very politely.

Beau narrows her eyes at him. ‘Not. Another. Word,’ she hisses.

‘Perhaps, ah, something to help your elbow? Some ice, perhaps?’

‘I’ll kill you.’

‘You’ll slip before you make it,’ Caleb tells her.

‘Oh yeah? Wanna bet?’

He smiles again. This one he forgets to cover up, or doesn’t feel like he needs to. It’s small and thin and despite the chill, despite everything, Beau feels it warm her a little. Basks in the way it feels washing over her—like the sun breaking thin through the grey, chilled sky, kinda like pride, kinda like wonder at how warm the smile is, how terribly fond he must feel to summon such a bright little spark—to have made such a sad, sad man smile. Shit, she’d fall a hundred times for that.

‘I am a fan of calculated risks, Beauregard. So, ja. I bet you can’t make it to me without slipping.’

Beau takes the bet and struggles to her feet. She loses immediately—but she never had any intent on actually winning, far more focused on falling into the slush piled to the side of the paved path, and grabbing up enough of the hard packed ice to lob at him. Laughs at the look of shock on his face as the slush drips, down his cheek, down beneath the curl of his scarf.

**Author's Note:**

> hi im unicyclehippo on tumblr as well, feel free to swing on by & say hi or send me a prompt x


End file.
